My Military Child Is Going to College, What About TRICARE?

Your military child has turned 18 and is headed off to college. Until now, it has never been a question about what type of TRICARE they would need. You have TRICARE Prime, so they do. But when a military child leaves for college, things can change. Here is what you need to know.

Moving to college counts as a TRICARE Qualifying Life Event (QLE) under the moving category. A QLE is a change in life such as moving, the birth of a child, or getting married. A QLE starts a 90-day period from the date of the move where you can make eligible enrollment changes. You can read more about QLEs on the TRICARE website.

If you are on TRICARE Prime, your student can keep using your home address, but non-emergency care outside your Prime Service Area will require referrals to avoid Point of Service fees and higher cost-shares. If you are enrolled in the US Family Health Plan (USFHP), your student cannot use this plan while living outside the designated USFHP service area and must switch to TRICARE Prime or TRICARE Select.

If the college they attend is in a location where you can get TRICARE Prime, they can transfer their Prime enrollment to the new regional contractor and select a local Primary Care Manager. If no Prime Service Area is available, the student can switch to TRICARE Select.

The pros of staying on Prime are being able to get care from an assigned provider and being able to save on out-of-pocket medical costs. If you are on TRICARE Select, TRICARE Reserve Select, or TRICARE Retired Reserve, everything can stay the same.

If your child is going overseas, they can enroll in TRICARE Select Overseas, but only if they are attending college overseas alone. If they are Command-Sponsored and living with their active-duty sponsor overseas, they may stay eligible for TRICARE Prime Overseas or TRICARE Prime Remote Overseas. If your child attends a Service Academy, they hold active duty status and receive direct Department of Defense medical and dental care as active personnel rather than as your dependent.

Wherever your child is going to college, check whether the school offers its own health care plans. These qualify as Other Health Insurance (OHI), making the school plan the primary payer and TRICARE the secondary payer.

Unmarried adult children ages 21 through 25 who age out of regular coverage can purchase TRICARE Young Adult until they turn 26, provided they do not have access to employer-sponsored healthcare.

Update your child’s record to “student status” within DEERS. You must submit a letter from the school registrar certifying full-time enrollment in an associate degree program or higher at an accredited institution, along with the expected graduation date. You must also certify that the sponsor provides over 50 percent of the student’s financial support.